BIS open letter to community

[Metal Heart 0]

BIS, you are the best. I salute you, from the very bottom of my heart. Thank you.

[shinRaiden 0]

Quote[/b] ]

16th July 2000

We apologise to all who didn´t find feature „Unit of the week“ from 9th July 2000. High temperatures, following huge raining and little technical problems cause the strikes of responsible workers. Culprits were whips and send to a pit. Feature „Unit of the week“ is here

Bwah-hah-hah, so thats where they all went, off to Marek's salt mines...

------------------------

Although my reg.date is

Quote[/b] ]

April 07 2003,11:56

I actually had OFP for some time prior, having bought it off the shelf at Bestbuy late 2002 iirc, about when BF1942 was coming out. It was a totally random buy based on the cover, and OFP Gold Edition was price-dropped a bit too. Never regretted, especially not now after seeing the mess they call BF2. Want something I could mod and tweak, found OFPEC right off the bat and was more happy.

If we want to make OFP really look old though, how about we take the orthodox fundamentalist view and start counting from conception? That would make it 8 years old, if dev started in 1997... how's that for old software...

[Baphomet 0]

I swear I saw an advert in 1998 or so, for a game that resembled OFP. I think it was a two page spread in Maximum PC. I remember seeing that and my eyes just boggled. My mind raced at the possibilities.

A few years and I looked and wondered, I never heard word nor wind of it until I noticed in PC gamer they had mentioned something about a game similar in description to the advert I saw in that magazine oh so long ago.

I still aim to find that magazine and cut out that ad. As it's an important piece of gaming history to me. Still. What a long crazy ride it's been.

Regardless of the name or publisher. I always felt pretty sure that BIS would try to do right by the game. Although the allure of money and the threat of a large developer trying to buy up the rights loomed in my head. I always remained hopeful.

So far, the game looks amazing. I'm fixing to buy a new pc for it as well when it's released.

[philcommando 0]

Thanks Marek for the letter and i personally wish you the best in your future endeavours.

Many times i had the pleasure of seeing the config and like a surgeon, believes fervantly there is a God based on the wonders of what we saw. In ofp1 together with 02, the possibilities of creation is endless as long as one thinks out of the box. You had set the genre for classic 3d gaming what pac man did for video games back in the 80's. Many other gamemakers could only copy, but never the originality concieved in one far-sighted team such as yours.

Together with Codemasters and pioneers of this community(who had times did stuff you may not agree with but in the end which worked out for the best), It had been a great 4 years of collaboration and i, a newbie, am honoured to be part of this exciting vison of how a video game is best played - total immersion at one's fingertip.

Irregardless of ArmA, ofp2,ofp3 or whatever name it will be called, I will always support companies that had been touched by your genius, for your magic rubs off to lesser mortals who are in close association with you and any other gamemaker that strives to produce for the market, will always carry your vision and strives to be better, though never the same - a standard that would only mean well for the international community of video game players, present and future.

Whatever the future holds with new products, be it beyond or below expections, i will always look at ofp1 and remember the wonder and hours of fun it gave me and fellow community members.

Happy birthday to BIS!

[-IT-Q- 0]

It's been already 4 years ... and with ArmA and future titles more to come - BIS can assert that it consumes a lot of people lifes

the good thing is people are happy about that fact

congratz ofp and BIS !

Nice heads-up with the letter, its really appreciated !

Now you only need to give us some facts about editing / modeling and such some weeks prior to the release that the community can polish their stuff for the release already

[kavoven 4]

Happy Birthday OFP

Really nice step of you, BIS, this letter sounds quite personal

[bn880 5]

What can I say;

thanks, cheers, and I hope many more years!

(it will be revitalizing when the new releases come out to the community, waiting patiently )

[Heatseeker 0]

I am confident of BIS capability has a developer but it does worry me that no publisher has stepped in to the scene by now, im also sure that you guys can still hold your own, even if developing for the private simulation market just to keep things running, being a comercial user i do feel a mix of optimist and worry, publishers should be struggling to see who takes the beloved cake (BIS). I hope to see great news and a big anouncement in the near future, please .

[Franz_Schall -SWAF- 0]

I just wanted to express my gratitude and wish BIS all the best for their future products.

Even if the birthday party is supposed to be over by now, keep up the good work and happy belated birthday!

[h - 169]

Now, am I the only one that noticed that 'Jordan Man Derek' celebrated 'his' 4th birthday the 22nd too

Anyway,

to BIS!

For OFP, the best game ever made...

[Colossus 2]

Now, am I the only one that noticed that 'Jordan Man Derek' celebrated 'his' 4th birthday the 22nd too

No, we know

[h - 169]

Quote[/b] ]No, we know

Oh come on, that's not fair...

You made me spam

[ArchangelX 0]

OFP is such a classic, that even I get nostalgic now and then, and just have to come back to it. I just picked up Battlefield 2, and the whole time I'm playing it, I'm thinking...jeezus..OPF does so many thing better than this. The sights...the sounds...everything, even though the game graphics and physics model are a little behind the times.

So...of course, I came back to the forums to take a look around and see what's happening. It's great to know that a new OPF (aka AA) is on the near horizon...as I'll be one of the first people to pick it up.

Great news!

[Dallas 9]

A happy birthday to you BIS.

I'm still secretly hoping

Quote[/b] ](which is still a possible scenario)

that reality will force Codemaster back into the negociation room with a bigger bag of gold. I'm secretly hoping Codemaster isn't that naive to actually think they can produce a reasonable competitor to a company, who owns the love of a huge and united community, an unique engine with a key to all past addons, so much potential and fearlessness to go after their vision of the worlds best game. I think there's still hope that the real ofp2 will bear the name ofp2. But I also think Codemaster will have to dig much much deeper in their pockets, to give BIS true credit for what ofp is and will become.

I really hope these letters are a part of a 'public negociation' between CM and BIS. CM has the name, BIS has the rest of the cards.

I'd rather have game2 named ofp2, but CM might want to start raising their bids fast, because ArmA is growing on me by the minute.

BIS, I got nothing but

[Tankbuster 1733]

I sometimes chuckle when I read threads like this.

None of us know was CM's game is going to be like. Equally, only a select few of us know what BIS' game is going to be like. Saying stuff like

Quote[/b] ]the dump OFP from CM

is naive and sycophantic. I'm going to buy which ever game is best. If that's the Codemasters game, so be it.

Let's look at this rationally. Codemasters have produced a number of good games, their stable is enviable. BIS' track record, while high quality extends only to one game, this one, so if I may shoot against the run of play here, I really think that those of you promising to buy the BIS product and ignore the CM one could *possibly* be missing out.

[hardrock 1]

Saying stuff like

Quote[/b] ]the dump OFP from CM

is naive and sycophantic. I'm going to buy which ever game is best. If that's the Codemasters game, so be it.

But Codemasters would have a long way to go to come up with something equal. Remind you: BIS spent a few years developing OFP. Another 3 years optimizing the engine, so it can be played on X-BOX without much loss of features. Another year to finalize ArmA, using the new graphics engine they developed in the past years and the optimization knowledge they gained from porting the game to the X-BOX.

Now it hasn't been that long that CM was pushed out, and they surely can't easily catch up with what BIS have gained so far.

[hellfish6 7]

Please don't carry on conversations from 6 months ago.